


hiraeth

by Syrasha



Category: Fallout (Video Games), Fallout 4
Genre: Anthology, Eventual Smut, F/M, Fluff, don't worry i hate myself too much to ever leave this hellhole
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-12-25
Updated: 2016-06-07
Packaged: 2018-05-09 07:03:19
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 10,600
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5530334
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Syrasha/pseuds/Syrasha
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>hiraeth (welsh, noun) - a homesickness for a home you cannot return to, or that never was: alternatively, a mix of longing, yearning, nostalgia, wistfulness, and an earnest desire</p><p>Hancock and Nora, in snippets and pieces, as they learn how to define one another.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. effervescent

Nora would be lying if she said she was adjusting well to life in the Commonwealth. There had been a few moments, briefly, when Nora had thought everything would come out okay, just as she emerged from the Vault. It seemed silly, but coming up out of the ground and seeing the sun still shining had given her hope, however shortly. Then, when the light quit blinding her eyes and she managed to move her hand away from her face, she saw the wasteland.

Minutes previously, to Nora, Sanctuary had been lush and white-picket fenced, the domestic dream Nate had always wanted for them and that Nora had compromised on when Shaun had been conceived. She had finally made the transition from lawyer to housewife, and finally started to even feel _satisfied_ with the new hand she’d been dealt, and it had been taken from her again.

Nora supposed they really hadn’t been kidding about how many times the average person would change careers. Lawyer. Housewife. Survivor. Every morning she woke up and shook off Housewife to put on Survivor again, and every night Survivor fell away and was replaced with Housewife once more, doing everything in her power to make sure her new comrades in Sanctuary were taken care of, Codsworth there to help as he always had been and a few other allies that she’d picked up along the way.

Housewife did more crying than Survivor, so Housewife had to be put on hold while Nora and a companion were trekking through the Commonwealth, but Housewife peeked through the curtains whenever she saw a friend go down, or saw a child begging for scraps.

She wasn’t adjusting well, but she was surviving, and that was more than anyone else she had known before the war except Shaun, so it felt distasteful to complain. She felt similarly when she and Piper walked into Goodneighbor and Nora was already a little worse for wear. Piper had wrapped Nora’s arm around her shoulders and had almost dragged her singlehandedly into town. Nora almost wanted to kiss the journalist when she wasn’t berating herself for stupidly managing to step on a bottlecap mine.

Then that asshole had told her she needed “insurance,” and if only for the sake of her relationship with Piper, Nora was glad her leg felt completely mangled, because it would have taken every ounce of self-control not to beat him to within an inch of his life.

“Look, pal,” Nora spat, “I may not look like much now, but I promise you, if either of us needs insurance, it’s definitely not me.”

One look at Nora’s leg and it was clear that the man wasn’t convinced, and even Piper’s valiant attempts to convince him otherwise were unsuccessful. Part of her wondered if this endeavor would have been more successful if she had brought Preston with her in place of Piper, but she didn’t get to follow that train of thought for very long before another voice entered the fray.

“Look, Finn, I appreciate your entrepreneurial spirit,” said the gravelly voice, “but there ain’t no reason to be taking advantage of people who clearly are new to town.”

Nora had to be honest; she sort of stopped listening once she saw who the voice was coming from. He sounded like Nora’s grandfather that had never laid off the cigarettes despite what everyone told him, but that was really the only human thing about the speaker other than the fact that he walked on two legs. Of course, all that meant that when the – _thing –_ man killed the extortionist, she had no context clues whatsoever.

Piper brought her back to earth. “Mayor Hancock. A pleasure.” Piper’s mouth twisted distastefully. “See you still aren’t above killing civilians.”

“Ms. Wright, like you said yourself, I’m the mayor. Sometimes folks, those of less caliber than yourself, need reminded of that.” Hancock looked Nora up and down, and Nora felt a chill run down her spine. “Doc can patch you up if your friend needs it, and she looks like she does. Say I sent you. Consider it a favor to earn the goodwill of the press.”

“Good journalists don’t accept bribes, Hancock,” Piper’s mouth was still set in a line.

“Fine, then let her bleed out. See if I care. Something tells me you weren’t lying when you told him you didn’t have the caps to pay for insurance, and if you don’t have caps for him, you don’t have caps for the doc.”

“Thanks,” Nora blurted out, speaking for the first time with sudden urgency as blood started seeping through the makeshift bandages she and Piper had rigged up not too many hours before. “Let’s go, Piper, before you’ve gotta put me back underground.”

“Whatever you say, Blue.” Piper dragged her the last little way to the doctor, and when the doctor laid her down and said something about injecting her, Nora was already so woozy from blood loss that she acquiesced without a thought. After that, everything was black.

 -

Nora drifted in and out of the darkness, snippets of her old life and her new weaving in and connecting with each other, and she sees Nate and Piper and Shaun and Nick and Preston and Codsworth and then that weird sort-of-man who looked a lot like the feral ghouls that she and Piper had killed for miles just to get to Goodneighbor.

The sound was hazy, sort of like if she had turned on the radio and it hadn’t been quite tuned properly.

_“I don’t know what happened, Hancock. I stuck her with some Med-X to relieve the pain, and it wasn’t thirty seconds before her pulse got so faint I could barely feel it.”_

_“How much did you give her?”_ That sounded like Nick.

_“Standard dose -”_

_“Standard dose?! I told you not to do anything without checking with me first.”_

_“No offense, Nicky, but you’re a synth, so don’t let it hurt your feelings that you weren’t the first person she thought of to contact when something went wrong with our little Vault dweller.”_

Nick exhaled through his nose. _“No offense, **Johnny** ,”_ Nick sounded like he was mocking Hancock, “ _but Piper and I are the only ones who know that Nora’s been out for a couple of centuries and probably is a little more sensitive to chems than your average person.”_

_“Piper should have said - ”_ There was the doctor again, cut off by Piper’s voice.

“ _Piper **did** say. You didn’t listen because, I quote, ‘What does a little muckraker from Diamond City know?’”_

The voices became more and more understandable until Nora finally blinked her eyes open, slowly at first before shooting fully awake at the sudden pain that made her see stars.

“Mother of _shit,_ ” Nora swore, panting, sitting up in bed only to find herself with Piper and Nick hovering over the bed. “Why does everyone have to talk so loud?”

“Sorry, Blue. Nat always says the same,” Piper said, not sounding sorry at all, instead with a wide grin on her face. “Just glad to have you back. Had ole Nicky worried.”

“Your leg is functional, but it’s still going to be sore. The pain doesn’t mean anything too bad.”

“What happened?” Nora asked, and Piper and Nick looked at one another. Piper let out a sigh and opened her mouth as if to speak, but was beaten to the punch.

“You blacked out off a teaspoon of chems that wouldn’t have made anybody else blink. Guess it’s true what they say about age and constitution,” Hancock said with a smirk.

-

Nora was still limping when they left, but she couldn’t handle being out of commission much longer than she already had been, so she, Nick, and Piper went to the Memory Den because the gods had apparently not put her in enough pain for the last few days. Coming out of the experience, Nora briefly thanked her stars that she had had the foresight not to bring Dogmeat with, because the kind of groaning she was doing would have put the dog incredibly on edge.

Survivor drank a lot more than Housewife ever had (perhaps , so it was with her limp that she worked her way down to the Third Rail, grimacing at every step but too nervous to take painkillers following her “episode” with the doctor.

“Something strong,” she said, sitting down at the bar and addressing the barkeep, a robot with a Union Jack sticker slapped on and an accent to match.

“Strong like tequila or strong like turpentine, sister?” There was the raspy voice again, closer than Nora was really comfortable with, and when she looked to her left, there Hancock was, settling into the seat beside her.

“Strong like something to make me forget that my leg’s on fire and my brain feels like it was torn apart and taped back together,” Nora answered not a little dryly.

“Put it on my tab, Charlie,” Hancock said to the bartender, and Nora raised an eyebrow.

“Why?” Nora asked suspiciously.

“Can’t have people saying Goodneighbor isn’t hospitable to its guests,” he said, and downed a glass that Charlie put in front of him as Nora sipped hers slowly. “So what’s the story? You look good for your age, sister. Usually it’s only us ghouls that last that long.”

“Pre-war, we had all kinds of anti-aging cream. All us vaulties look like this if we can stay alive,” she said, and it was sarcastic, but Nora had dropped Survivor for Lawyer, walls and all. The ghoul was nice enough to talk to and she wouldn’t complain about his company, though she was suspicious about his motives, and she still couldn’t look at him for too long for fear of staring.

Hancock, for his part, had made his way down to the Third Rail to understand what kind of person in this world still wore a wedding ring. This woman already seemed to have Nick and that reporter from Diamond City wrapped around her finger, both relatively powerful allies, with all things considered, but the wedding ring was an archaic tradition, a reminder of a way of life that no longer existed. It made no sense, unless Piper and Nick had been telling the truth about her being a pre-war antique, and that made no sense either.

Three drinks in and Hancock was almost feeling it. Nora certainly was.

“So, what even is a ghoul? They certainly weren’t down in my vault,” Nora said, and her words slurred, staring into her drink before looking him in the eye and squinting.

“You must be fresh outta the ground.” Hancock dodged the question, though he wasn’t sure why. She seemed as though she didn’t want to look at him for too long at a time, which was common enough, but from her it seemed almost innocent rather than disgusted

Nora waved him off with a flippant hand gesture. “Don’t misdirect, Hancock. I was a lawyer. I know deflection when I see it.”

Hancock raised what would have been an eyebrow as a reflex. “A lawyer?”

“Ah!” Nora slammed down her drink and waggled a finger at him. “No questions. I’m the one doing the examining, here.”

“The examining?” Hancock chuckled. “I had no idea we already knew each other that well.” Hancock paused, waiting for her to continue the banter, but instead she rested her elbow on the bar and her face on her hand. Her face was rounder than many in Goodneighbor, healthy instead of underfed, her eyes were bright, and most of all, Nora’s hair looked almost soft. Hancock continued. “Ghouls are created by extended exposure to rads. Some of us literally lose our minds; ghouls like me just get a fucked-up complexion and a little extra charisma. I’m a little different, almost manufactured. A little radioactive drug got the better of me, but-” Hancock inhaled through his nose. “It was worth it.”

Nora was silent for a moment. “I was an avatar of the justice system, a lawyer. It was idealistic even then, more so now. I sought truth.”

“Idealistic, maybe. No less worthwhile. The Commonwealth just dispenses justice as it sees fit,” Hancock said, and Nora traced the rim of her drink with her finger before stepping back from the bar only to fall down all over herself and into a fit of laughter. Hancock chuckled along with her for a moment, eyes in the bar all on them as he reached a disfigured hand down to help her up. “Let’s get you home, sweetheart.”

She locked up at hearing him call her sweetheart, and Hancock was unsure why, but she brushed it off quickly. “Call me anything else you like, so long as it isn’t bitch, but try to stay away from sweetheart if possible…” Nora trailed off, still on the ground and gripping Hancock’s hand like her life depended on it. “My husband called me sweetheart, a long, long time ago.” The light glinted off her wedding band in that moment, and she finally pulled herself up off the floor.

“Whatever you say, doll. So long as we chat again sometime.” Hancock winked at her to defuse the tension, and she dissolved into a puddle of laughter again, draping herself over him at his request to help her back to the hotel.

Nick was still awake when they arrived, likely waiting for her to return to kill time. He had no need for sleep anyway, and Hancock passed the survivor off to Nick with a nod and a smile before resolving to keep an eye out for the merry band of fools Nora had collected around her.


	2. yuanfen

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> yuanfen (chinese, noun): a relationship by fate or destiny

Nora’s cheeks burned, and oh God, she had never wanted to die so much as she did in that moment. She stared up at Fahrenheit, Nick at her side and Bobbi just behind them, and the magnitude of what she’d agreed to came crashing down around her. Survivor slipped away quickly, replaced by shy Housewife despite Survivor’s protests.

“Oh my God, Nick, we fucked up. We really fucked up,” Nora mumbled under her breath to him, and he deigned only to answer with a nod. Hancock had been so kind to her only a night or two previously and now (her memory was shoddy at best), here she was, literally _blowing_ her way into his store room. Bobbi tried her best to wheel and deal her way out of the sticky situation she’d placed them all in, but the more she talked, the more pissed off Nora got, until finally Bobbi found herself with a bullet in her head when she was unwilling to take the deal that Nora was trying to offer.

Nora’s hand shook as the pistol fell to her side again, and Nick glanced at her worriedly as Fahrenheit laughed. She held it together until Hancock’s bulldog finally left, and then she collapsed into Nick’s arms.

“What’s going on here, kid?” Nick asked, understandably confused, and Nora straightened up, still sobbing slightly and mortified at the amount of snot and dirt that rubbed off on Nick’s jacket.

“I just gotta…” Nora sniffed. “I just gotta toughen up, is all. That’s the first time I’ve ever-“ Her voice cracked. “That’s the first time I’ve ever shot first, and certainly the first time I’ve shot somebody I was working with.”

Nick chuckled, not unkindly, slinging his arm around her shoulder. “Kid, you’re too good for this world. You tried to give her a way out.”

“Coming from you, ‘too good for this world’ might actually mean something.”

“You want a drink? We’ll grab Piper and make a date of it.”

“I always did like reporters, Nick. How’d you know?”

Three hours later, Nora was decidedly not fine. Nick had left to walk Piper back to their hotel, and she had found herself in the Third Rail’s bathroom, vomiting and only hitting her target (the toilet) about 90% of the time. Somehow, three hours ended with her passed out on the floor, her last memory only something about _do the toilets even flush in this time? I ran to the toilet to throw up because that’s what we were always told to do but is it the same? What is the drunk etiquette?_

-

She woke up in a place she didn’t recognize, and the first thing Nora did was pull her pistol on whatever thing was moving at the edge of her vision.

“Easy there, sister…” Nora recognized the voice at once, and lowered the pistol, Hancock’s red coat finally registering as her eyes adjusted to the dim candle that was the only source of light in the room.

“Of course it’d be you,” Nora muttered under her breath, grabbing her own head in pain. Hancock chuckled and tossed her a canister of water.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” He sat down across from her and swung his boots up on the table between them, as she chugged half of it in one drink. “I’d offer you something to ease the pain, but last time you so much as sniffed a chem you were down for the count. Though, with the way you’ve been hitting the bottle, maybe you’re ready to step up to the challenge.”

Nora shook her head. All things considered, the experience with Med-X had put her off of any substance she didn’t know much about, to the point where one might almost call her scared. “I only hit the bottle when I find out I’ve just completely sabotaged a friend or I’ve returned from nearly the brink of death.”

“Calling it a sabotage isn’t really fair. You thought you were screwing with a Diamond City tyrant, but if that’s what it takes for you to call me a friend, then I suppose I still came out on top. It bother you if I take a hit?” Hancock’s hands were fidgeting, and Nora shook her head. “Fahrenheit told me you tried to talk down Bobbi. More than she deserved, if I’m being honest.”

“Fahrenheit also said something about you knowing everything that goes on in Goodneighbor, and while I don’t doubt that, I do find it hard to believe that such an upstanding gentleman as yourself would allow this charade to go on,” Nora said, not a little passive-aggressively.

Hancock sighed and lit a cigarette, settling back as the mentats worked their way into his system, almost looking a little upset with himself. “Yeah, I’ll be honest, I feel bad about that. Part of the reason people in power go crazy is because they can manipulate those under them. They play a game. Forget what it’s like to be on the ground themselves.” He stood and walked slowly to the window, staring out at the flickers of light that dotted the town in the darkness. “I’m getting too comfortable. Gotta get out there again, bust a few heads, make sure I remember what it’s like to be a person and not a politician.”

“Christ. If you wanna get out of here that badly, we’ve always got room for another,” Nora said. Hancock took a drag from his cigarette, and Nora stood, the ghoul now silent. “I should probably head back. I’m sure Nick and Piper are worried.”

“Likely. Hang around Goodneighbor tomorrow, if you can.”

-

Nick had been worried sick, but Piper at least been passed out and hadn’t been in any state to interrogate Nora when she returned to the hotel room. The detective let up after Nora grabbed her face and groaned whenever he raised his voice above a whisper, but Nora wasn’t sure when she had come under the care of a synthetic dad. Nevertheless, the concern was not ill-taken.

Nora slept late because Piper, normally the early bird, was hungover to hell, and Nick felt it unwise to wake either of the women before they were good and ready themselves. When Nora woke, Piper had just done the same, and Nick showed up not twenty minutes later.

“What time is it?” Nora groaned, still fighting off the last bits of the hangover, and Nick shook his head.

“Late enough that we should really be heading out to do something, if we’re planning on getting anything done.”

So they left. Out the door, down the stairs, and into blinding sun that made Nora wish that she’d brought a pair of sunglasses along. From her moaning, Piper felt similarly, while Nick spared only a chuckle or two at their expense. Of course, nothing could have prepared Nora for the gathering in the middle of Goodneighbor that they ran into the second they tried to get out of town.

Nora only caught the end of it, but that was all she needed, followed by a rousing round of, “Of the people! For the people!” that Hancock started but the crowd carried on. Hancock was leaving Goodneighbor, and in some way, that made Nora upset – not sad, per se, but more like a friend was moving away, and she supposed that was why he had asked her to hang around Goodneighbor for the day.

She, Piper, and Nick stopped to stock up on supplies before skipping town (Hancock had paid handsomely for not killing Fahrenheit and turning on Bobbi instead), mostly ammo, and on exiting Daisy’s store, Nora found a familiar red coat waiting for them.

“Weren’t thinking of leaving without me, were you?” Nora could hear the smirk in Hancock’s voice, and she opened her mouth to answer, but Piper spoke first.

“What?” Piper was far from a pacifist and never ran away from a deserved fight, but Nora knew she disagreed with pretty much everything Hancock stood for except for “Of the people, for the people.”

“My friend Nora invited me to pal along with you last night. I was getting too comfortable,” Hancock said, in almost the exact same way he had the night before.

Piper’s jaw dropped. “You were with him last night? Nick told me he couldn’t find you.”

“In my defense, I didn’t look very hard,” Nick said dryly, cigarette dangling from his mouth.

Nora rubbed her temples, looking at Piper first. “I wasn’t _with_ him last night. I passed out in the bathroom of that _fucking bar_ without a chaperone because Nick had to walk you back.” Nora turned to Hancock. “And I didn’t think we were being serious-”

“You’re saying you don’t want me to come with? After that speech I just gave to everyone, Christ, this is embarrassing…”

“I never said I didn’t want you to come –“

“It’s settled then,” Hancock said, “Where are we headed?”

Nora’s cheeks burned red. “Hey, you don’t call the shots here. I’m in charge.”

Hancock stared at her from under the brim of his hat. “No offense, but if I’ve read anything about your situation right, you can’t really afford to be turning down allies, especially ones that know their way around a firefight.”

Hancock caught a glint of light off of her wedding band again as she ran her fingers through her hair – if she let him come with them, he’d have all the time in the world to figure that mystery out. When Nora sighed, he smiled genuinely at her.

Nora wasn’t really upset to have him along; in fact, it was quite the opposite. She had grown almost fond of him, but that didn’t change her uneasiness at his “ghouliness,” as she’d heard Piper refer to it… but a trial period couldn’t hurt, she supposed, and there was no reason she couldn’t get over it. This was a goddamn nuclear wasteland, and she wasn’t going to be picky about how her friends looked.

“We’re going to Sanctuary.”

Halfway there, Nora groaned so loudly, Hancock was surprised that it didn’t attract a yao guai.

“What’s up, kid?” Nick asked, innocently enough.

“Danse is gonna pitch a fucking fit.”

Piper fell into peals of laughter.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> what if i wasn't such trash  
> imagine.  
> xx
> 
> you can find me at battlemastershepard.tumblr.com i'm v friendly


	3. aware

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> aware (japanese, noun): the bittersweetness of a brief and fading moment of transcendent beauty
> 
> alternatively: nora fucks up her leg again.

Housewife the diplomat had come out not long after returning to Sanctuary, and she hadn’t had a damn break since. It had only been a little over a day since she’d returned to Sanctuary with Nick, Piper, and Hancock, but Survivor was getting restless, and Lawyer was finding it difficult not to take a side, and oh my _god_ sometimes she regretted helping out the Brotherhood of Steel, because if she hadn’t then she wouldn’t have had to deal with Danse for the last 24 hours.

Nora had her feet propped up on a table that had certainly seen better days and her head leaning against one of her hands, a little too comfortable and nearly dozing off when Preston came knocking. Nora smiled and sat up straight, beckoning him in. Preston took his hat off as he entered, and rubbed his head.

“Sorry to bother you, General. There’s raider trouble at Abernathy Farm, and the settlers there could use a hand.”

Nora gave Preston a weary smile, and tossed her body weight forward, standing up. “No bother, Preston. I’m on it.” Dogmeat whined at her feet, and Survivor welcomed the idea of getting out of Sanctuary. Preston and Nora exited together, Dogmeat trailing just behind with his tongue hanging out of his mouth, Nora mostly concerned with getting the particulars of what Preston knew. Having done that, Nora stopped by her workbench, Dogmeat still by her side, only to run straight into Hancock.

Nora smiled. It was hard getting past the superficial, but thus far, Hancock had done nothing but meet expectations and occasionally exceed them, drug habit aside. “How’s it going, Hancock?”

“Can’t complain, sister. Heard you were heading out.”

“You heard right. The Minutemen require my special brand of diplomacy.” Nora patted her gun for emphasis. “Wanna tag along? Should be pretty routine, and I think Dogmeat will forgive me if I leave him here one more time.” At the mention of his name, Dogmeat licked Hancock’s hand. “Look,” Nora chuckled, “He’s even given you his blessing.”

Hancock laughed in turn. “Dogs are the best wingmen.”

Hancock was no fool; he could tell he made Nora a little uncomfortable, but it was hard to begrudge her that when Vault dwellers knew even less about how the world really worked any more than Dogmeat did. She found it difficult to hold eye contact with him for very long, and spent most of her time staring straight ahead while he was around, but Hancock knew an attempt to be inclusive when he saw it, and Nora inviting him along was just that.

Nora knelt down to finish latching up her backpack, and Dogmeat took the opportunity to plant a sloppy kiss on her face. Nora sputtered and fell over backwards, and Hancock couldn’t help but smirk a little as she recovered and scrambled to her feet.

“Stay, buddy. I’ll be back in a few days.” She scratched behind the dog’s ears, and Dogmeat whined before trotting off. “Ready, Hancock?” Hancock nodded, and he and Nora started walking towards the edges of Sanctuary.

“So what’s it like –“ The stream of conversation had been coming fairly easily, and Hancock wasn’t sure what had caused the abrupt pause until he realized that meathead from the Brotherhood of Steel was standing between them and the bridge. “Danse. What can I do for you?”

Hancock sighed and lit a cigarette. Nora could be rigid when she wanted to be, and if there was anything he’d learned in the past few days, it was that she could compartmentalize like no other.

They looked almost comical, standing in front of one another. Nora barely cleared five feet and wore the lightest armor she could find, especially since she’d hurt her leg; Danse could be heard from a mile away in power armor and had at least a head on Nora.

“I simply wanted to advise against going on your current mission in present company.”

Hancock rolled his eyes and took another drag, though he was genuinely interested in whether or not Danse’s warning would be enough for Nora to retract her offer for him to come along.

“Noted.” Nora’s voice was cool, and Hancock was a little surprised at the ease with which she dismissed Danse’s concerns. “Danse. I like you – you know I like you – but I fear you’re letting your prejudices color your perception of incredibly useful allies.” She said it all with a stern face, but Nora’s face softened and she gave Danse a hug that he couldn’t have felt through the armor. “Be safe while we’re gone.”

That was all. Hancock nodded at Danse as they walked past, and Danse wouldn’t meet his eyes, but it didn’t really matter. Nora had hugged everyone as they’d left, so it didn’t surprise Hancock that she’d hugged Danse. Piper had even been the recipient of a kiss on the cheek and Nora had given Nick a brotherly punch to the shoulder that she’d regretted upon remembering that Nick was literally made of metal.

So they walked. It was quiet after Danse, though Nora didn’t appear particularly perturbed by the encounter.

“Say what you will about me and the chems,” Nora finally said, breaking the quiet, “but they still did the trick. I’m sore, but I barely have to baby my leg at all.”

If Nora didn’t want to talk about Danse, Hancock wouldn’t complain. “Yeah, I’ve never seen someone react quite the way you did.”

Nora chuckled. “What can I say, Hancock? I’m one of a kind.”

* * *

Hancock was, in a word, confused. He had known about Nora’s tendency to compartmentalize, but he hadn’t known quite how good at it she really was.  Nora had switched into Housewife the moment she saw the settlers at the farm, and she seemed to split at the seams with genuine concern for their wellbeing, but it was gone just as quickly as it had come. The couple mile trek to raider territory, Nora graced Hancock with Housewife’s quiet manner and soft laughter, but the shift to Survivor was so quick that it almost perturbed Hancock.

“Stay quiet,” she said, and Hancock wouldn’t dream of disobeying her, although he didn’t really think she meant it as an order. Switchblade in hand, Nora fell into a crouch and approached the raider base, slitting the throat of the first raider patrolling and ducking down behind a car until she was sure the coast was still clear.

Hancock was both impressed and terrified, and he vaguely remembered Nora saying something like, “I prefer to be very, very close or as far away as humanly possible.” He also vaguely remembered her lamenting that they were out of ammo for her sniper rifle, so her current approach made sense.

Then they noticed her, and Nora yelled out his name from where she had taken cover, not so far from where he was. She’d dispatched of four of their immediate threats, and only two were left in the immediate vicinity.

Hancock went after one with his shotgun, and he didn’t last very long, and Nora disposed of the other, but not without sustaining yet another injury to her already mangled leg.

“Son of a fuck!” It was more of a gasp of pain than a scream, and when Hancock retrieved the Med-X he was carrying, Nora shrunk away from him, Survivor gone and Housewife once more. “I-I can’t. I don’t know what’s going to happen if I take these chems. You saw me last time, and Nate would never forgive me if I died to drugs out here.”

Nate? Who the hell was Nate?

Nora moaned and grasped for her leg, and Hancock finally looked down to survey the damage. The raider had had a baseball bat and gone straight for the leg that Nora had been trying so hard to protect. It was already purpling and from the way Nora screamed out when she tried to put any weight on it, Hancock was fairly sure it was broken.

“C’mon, sister.” Hancock opted for a stimpak instead, and Nora held out a hand for it. “That’ll help. It’s no painkiller, but it’s better than nothing. I think we’ve taken care of their raider trouble for now. Let’s get back.”

Nora struggled to her feet, putting as little weight on her mangled leg as possible, and Hancock knocked back a couple of mentats before offering his shoulder to help support her.

“Better not let Danse see me like this. He’ll probably think you chewed up my leg yourself.” Nora chuckled as they struggled along, and Hancock couldn’t help but think she was probably right.

“Yeah, it’s best to get you patched up at least a little before we limp back into Sanctuary.”

“What do the chems feel like?” Nora asked, a little abruptly, and Hancock shot her a sideways glance that she took in stride. “The only time I’ve ever had one I fell flat on my back. It wasn’t exactly enjoyable.”

“Well, I hope from now on that all your experiences on your back absolutely blow your mind,” Hancock said, and Nora snorted despite herself, grimacing almost immediately afterwards.

“No, really, Hancock.”

“Depends on the chem. I’ve always been a mentats ghoul myself. Makes me feel intellectual.”

“I’ve always been pretty much a goody-two-shoes. No drugs, no alcohol, no sex, no meat.”

“Sounds boring.”

“That’s what everyone always told me, but it got me where I wanted to be. Hell, I think I’ve been boring since I was eight years old. You would have hated me.”

Her grin was wide despite the pain she was obviously feeling, and Hancock chuckled. “Well, anybody willing to travel with a ghoul for any amount of time can’t be too boring, even a ghoul with my kind of charisma.”

“Ahh, don’t sell yourself short, Hancock.” Nora groaned again, and Hancock stopped as Nora slowed even further. “I’m fine. If we can get back to the Abernathy place, I’ll try the Med-X again. I don’t want to try it in a place I’m exposed like this. We’ll just have to cut way back on the dosage.”

Hancock nodded, and they continued limping their way across the landscape, Nora’s wedding ring digging into his shoulder. The further they walked, the more she leaned into him, strength escaping her, until finally they were back with the settlers.

“Anything we can get for you, Ma’am? After everything you’ve done, I think we owe the Minutemen just about everything we can give them.”

“No, just… keep watch while I take these chems. I didn’t take to them so well last time.”

Hancock almost wanted to laugh; that was the understatement of the century. Nora laid down on the dingy couch and motioned Hancock near. “I’ll admit,” Nora said through gritted teeth, “that I have no idea how to administer these drugs, so I’m going to need your assistance. I’m also going to ask you to not be a total asshole about what a lightweight I am.”

Hancock laughed as she pressed the syringe into his hand. “You’ve been travelling with me long enough to know I’m the nicest guy around, sister. Now, this is going to sound forward of me, but I’m going to need to see your thigh.”

“You know,” she said, trying to roll up the leg of her vault suit and failing as her fingers shook, “I’ve always been a little squeamish around needles. It’s why I gave up on being a doctor.”

Nora’s eyes were wide, and Hancock could tell she was significantly more nervous than she was trying to let on, but she finally hiked the leg of her suit up far enough. Survivor was exhausted, and as the needle pressed against her skin, Nora gripped Hancock’s other wrist, the one that he wasn’t using to shoot her up.

Skin was such a funny thing. His wrist looked even more deformed with her fingers wrapped around it, and they were even _soft_ , and so little in this world was soft anymore. Her nails dug into him briefly before the painkiller started to take effect, and little by little, her fingers loosened. Nora wasn’t quite awake, but she wasn’t unconscious either, at least as far as Hancock could tell.

“Hancock,” she whispered.

“Mmm?” Hancock mumbled back, comfortably smoking a cigarette now that he was at least semi-reassured that Nora wasn’t going to die of a drug overdose.

“Danse can go fuck himself. I’m glad you’re here.”

“Glad to hear it, sister.”

“You can’t leave now, by the way,” Nora said, slurring her words like only a person under the influence can. “You’re the only one who’s successfully doped me up.”

As she fell asleep there and ruined their chances of returning to Sanctuary before nightfall, Hancock was struck briefly by the thought that Nora was quite attractive, tousled hair falling all over her face, one black, blue and purple leg exposed, and her flawless skin contrasting so heavily with his.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> if u wanna get 2 know me!!!  
> battlemastershepard.tumblr.com
> 
> join me in fallout and star wars hell


	4. efflorescence

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> efflorescence (french, noun): a flowering or blooming

“Hancock, I don’t remember anything that happened after I busted up my leg. Maybe the chems just aren’t in the cards for me.”

“Don’t worry about it, sister. We can’t all be as resilient as me, not to mention as handsome.”

Hancock had been wrong; Nora’s leg wasn’t broken, but it was definitely sprained, and as they two trudged back into Sanctuary, Hancock could feel all eyes on them.

“Don’t look now, sister, but I think we’ve been spotted.”

Nora chuckled through a grimace, face turning to panic as she spotted Dogmeat running towards them. “Hey, pal, I don’t think I’ll live through you hopping up on me today.” The dog skidded to a halt in front of them, licking Nora’s hand then Hancock’s, and Nora smiled despite herself as Dogmeat fell into step on the side opposite of Hancock. Nora tossed a smile and a wave the way of everyone they happened across, Housewife once again, trying to host even as she couldn’t put more than a quarter of her own weight on her leg.

“Help me into that chair?” It was more of a question than a statement, and Hancock obliged before excusing himself, though not before ensuring that Nick was available to keep an eye on her. Before ducking out, Dogmeat curled up at her feet and Nick at her side. Hancock nodded at the synth before stepping out onto irradiated ground, nearly walking headfirst into a chestplate of power armor. Hancock tried to look up at Paladin Danse’s face, but he was already halfway past Hancock and breaching the doorway.

Hancock shook his head and didn’t break stride, looking for a quiet place to knock back a couple mentats and indulge in a little more jet. He was still riding out the last bits of a high from not too long ago, and briefly he wondered if he was hallucinating when he heard what sounded like an outraged screech from the building he had just left. Nora must still have been inside, but Danse exited the building, backing up as Dogmeat seemed to be on the offensive. The dog was growling, and Hancock vaguely recognized Nora’s voice, still shouting incomprehensible things at the retreating Danse, and Hancock finally realized the gravity of the situation when Nora herself came hobbling into the doorway, a worried Nick at her heels.

“What gives you the _right_? What makes you think that I would be anything but inclusive, knowing what I know about _you_? Have you even _met_ me? I have half a mind to tell you to hit the goddamn road right now.”

“I-”

“I’m in charge; _I_ am talking; _you_ will listen.” Nora cut him off, and Hancock pretended like there was something on his boot in a weak excuse to stay and eavesdrop. “In what world would I give any credence to _anything_ the Brotherhood of Steel has ever taught you when at the end of the day they brainwashed you so thoroughly that you _literally_ wanted to die? You can think whatever you want of me, but I give absolutely _zero_ fucks about anything the Brotherhood believes when they would gladly destroy people like you and Nick, and I don’t know _why_ it would _ever_ cross your mind that I would feel at all differently about the Brotherhood’s opinion on ghouls!” Nora’s chest heaved, and briefly Hancock was worried that she was about to keel over from the amount of energy she expended in her tirade before Nick grabbed her by the shoulder. “If you don’t like how I do things here, you’re more than welcome to find somewhere else. No one will stop you.”

With Nick’s help, she turned and walked back into the ruined house, but Dogmeat stayed and watched Danse as insurance before bounding over and giving Hancock a friendly lick on the hand once the paladin had disappeared.

“Hey pal,” Hancock said, scratching behind the dog’s ears, “Glad you’re on my side.”

Dogmeat looked up, tongue lolling out of his mouth, and Hancock laughed just slightly before the dog hopped up and planted a kiss on Hancock that took almost his whole face.

“Christ.”

* * *

 

Nora was missing for most of the rest of the day, but she resurfaced at dinner, chatting animatedly with Piper and going out of her way to not make eye contact with Danse before plopping down next to Hancock after setting her makeshift crutches to the side, and Hancock quickly realized he was probably a little too sober for this.

“Long day, sister?”

Nora exhaled loudly. “The longest.”

“You don’t have to sit with me to make a statement. It’s very clear Paladin Dense doesn’t much care for me, and while I appreciate having a beautiful woman keep my interests at heart, he won’t be the first or the last.”

“Yeah, well,” Nora tastefully navigated away from his quip, “You saved my life. Least I can do is show him he’s being a dick. People never treated me very nicely when Nate and I got married anyway, so he can go to hell.” Hancock made a surprised face, and Nora waved him off. “Nothing of import or anything. They didn’t like a white guy marrying a black girl.”

“I’ve heard about that. Never really knew if it was true or if it was something we made up about history.”

“No, it was true. I told Nate it was a bad idea, but he didn’t really care. Don’t think he quite understood how much danger he was putting me in.” Nora laughed half-heartedly. “He never had much awareness of the world around him. He always knew best, even when he didn’t.” She went silent for a moment, and Hancock had wanted to learn the story about the wedding ring, but hadn’t quite expected it to fall in his lap just like that. “Anyway.” Nora propped up her leg with a wince. “The real reason I’m over here is to thank you again for your outstanding conduct on our last mission. I don’t remember all of it, but I came back alive, so you’re alright in my book, Mr. Mayor. That’s what the argument with Danse was about.”

“No offense, but I think everyone within a five mile radius could tell what the argument about,” Hancock said, and Nora rubbed the back of her neck sheepishly.

“I get a little… impassioned about things. We didn’t have ghouls in my time, you know, and it took me a little while to realize how much of a hypocritical asshole I was being by being nervous around you. Guess that was me trying to make up for being a racist fuck.” There were more swear words in that sentence than Hancock had ever heard her string together at once, and if the look on Preston’s face was any indicator, the Minuteman felt the same. Well, that’s what he got for eavesdropping, in Hancock’s opinion, tastefully neglecting to remember that he’d gone out of his way to eavesdrop just this morning. “Anyway, I guess this is an apology? I’m not very good at apologies. I was always kind of a spitfire that didn’t know how to say sorry.”

Nora forgot to mention that Housewife was actually quite good at apologies, that she was always apologizing for Nate for one stupid thing or another, but Lawyer was in charge right now, making a clear distinction about where it was Nora stood. Housewife hosted and Survivor, well, survived, but Lawyer was opinionated and clear on what she wanted.

“I’d offer you a hit to say I accept your apology, but the last time you took anything you didn’t even remember the memorable night we had together.” Nora’s laugh tinkled in the air, accentuated by the crackling of the fire, and Hancock was briefly struck by how little this was like Goodneighbor and how much it really _was_ like Goodneighbor at the same time. With Nora distracted by Piper, the reporter telling the other woman some idea she has for a piece to start a two-front effort for recruiting settlers to Sanctuary, Hancock took a look around. A synth (a couple of synths, if Hancock inferred anything about the argument with Danse), a Mr. Handy pre-war relic that Nora was prepared to kill for, Deacon in a corner, spinning a tale so fantastic that Cait’s eyes were like saucers and a Miss Nanny who was almost absurdly independent were all gathered around for dinner, and those were just a few. There was also Preston, the golden boy, and all his Minutemen, Dogmeat curled up at Nora’s feet, Danse keeping as much of a distance as he possibly could from Strong, that mercenary MacCready cleaning his rifle and acting like he  doesn’t have big doe eyes for Piper.

He was the only ghoul there, but they were all a bunch of misfits that came together out of choice, and it was all because of _her_. Nora ‘s face was lit up and animated, telling Piper what a great idea it was that she’d had, and it was all Hancock could do not to chuckle. It wouldn’t be the end of him to stick around for awhile, he thought as he sat there, and maybe the vault dweller was just his kind of trouble. He knocked back a couple of mentats just in time for Nora to slap him on the back.

“And I don’t remember everything, Piper, but I’m pretty sure this guy saved my life. At the very least, his drug habit proved useful in that he knew what amount probably wouldn’t kill me.”

“Thank heaven for small favors.” Piper deadpanned and shook her head before looking at Hancock. “Thanks for keeping her alive. Nick and I can only do so much at any given time.”

“Why, Miss Wright, I think that’s the nicest thing you’ve ever said to me.”

“Don’t get a big head over it. I still think you’re kind of an ass.”

Hancock chuckled and laid back on the ground, cigarette dangling from his mouth.

* * *

Survivor was feeling restless. Nora’s leg had put her out of commission for a couple of weeks while Curie patched her up, because Curie was good, but even she wasn’t a miracle worker, especially when the second anyone approached Nora with a needle, Survivor pulled a knife out of her boot. So she hobbled around hopping on one leg with only crutches to support her, and Hancock wasn’t sure he had ever seen a more hysterical sight. Nora was still out patching together generators, making sure the water was clean, and double-checking that they would have enough food, Nick or Piper always at her side to prop her up when the crutches wouldn’t move quite fast enough for her. Hancock helped where he could, and when it wasn’t detrimental, because a lot of the settlers that Sanctuary seemed to have amassed harbored a little too much hesitation towards ghouls.

Nora always found her way to him around dinnertime, making a point to spend as much time with him as she did with anybody else, if not more, and Hancock still wasn’t certain if she did so because she enjoyed his company or because she was trying to teach Danse a lesson. Either way, it meant the mystery of that wedding ring was unraveling a lot more quickly than he had expected it to, or if not the mystery of the wedding ring, at least the mystery of what pre-war was really like.

“I was the only black girl in the program, and I still wonder if I got in on my own merit or because Daddy pulled for me. After Ma died, he had to take care of me on his own, and that’s how I wound up in Boston at all.” Sometimes, Nora slipped into an accent Hancock didn’t quite recognize, when she was talking about her family mostly. “He passed a couple of months after I graduated, but he got to see me become a lawyer just like him.”

“I’m sure he was proud, sister.”

“He was.” Nora smiled, not a little sadly. “Daddy was the best lawyer I’d ever seen.”

“Not that I mind, exactly,” Hancock treaded lightly, “But why exactly are you telling me all this? We’re friends, yeah, but you’re much closer with Piper and Nick.”

Nora blinked twice and smirked, not unkindly. “You mean you haven’t noticed how alike we are? I became a lawyer because that’s what Daddy was, yeah, but also because I didn’t like the way things worked for people who couldn’t protect themselves. I protected them instead. Just because I didn’t don the clothes of John Hancock to do it doesn’t mean there aren’t parallels.” She nudged his shoulder playfully. “I also can tell you don’t feel like you quite belong here in Sanctuary, and I don’t even belong in this _century_ , so there’s that, too.”

“You don’t have to butter me up to take me home, sugar.”

“Sugar?” Nora’s laugh reverberated, or at least it seemed that way to the jet that Hancock had had a little too much of. “You couldn’t handle me anyway, darlin’. Texas girls are in a league of their own.”

Hancock decided he liked the accent.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> whoops sorry about that weirdly long hiatus. this chapter really was a struggle and i'm still not completely happy with it, so feedback on it is more than welcome because wow this felt like a fuckin piece of shit
> 
> my tumblr is battlemastershepard.tumblr.com for all ur crying needs


	5. zhaghzhagh

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> zhaghzhagh (noun, Persian) - the chattering of teeth from the cold or from rage

Nora was poring over her Pip-Boy, eyes squinted and chewing on her own tongue. Nick and Piper were both by her side, staples that Hancock didn’t expect to see her without, but Deacon was there, too, looking a little more serious than he usually did. If Hancock were to boil people down to a single, defining trait, Piper would be protection, Nick would be truth, Nora would be resilience, and Deacon? Deacon would be flightiness. Hancock knew Deacon a little better than some, and he wasn’t sure how Nora convinced him to stick around Sanctuary this long, but it must have been something impressive.

“ _Just_ the ghoul I was looking for,” Nora said, white teeth shining bright against her dark skin. Hancock’s muscles moved in a way that once would have raised his eyebrows, and Nora’s grin only grew wider. “If there’s anyone in this world who I trust to have my back in Radiation City, it’s this guy.”

“Flattered though I am,” Hancock said, not feeling quite high enough for whatever adventure he was getting roped into. He also wasn’t high enough to believe that the _Radiation City_ quip was literal, “I gotta ask what this is in regard to.”

Piper sighed in a way that made her seem about twice her real age. “Blue thinks she’s going to go traipsing around the Glowing Sea looking for some renegade Institute scientist and that she’s going to take you with her because you’ve got the most experience with willingly doing batshit crazy things involving rads.”

Nora rolled her eyes. “When you put it like _that,_ it just sounds stupid.”

“Well, boss, if the boot fits,” Deacon drawled, and Piper tossed her hands up in the air like, _see? Even the guy who puts on a new face every couple of months agrees with me_.

“Look,” Nora started, a flinty tone in her voice that hadn’t been there before, “If any of you have a better idea of how to approach this situation, I’d love to hear it, but all things considered, _I_ was the one in Kellogg’s brain.”

Hancock didn’t know everything that happened back at the Memory Den, but Nick and Nora still whispered about it when they thought no one was listening. Hancock knew Nora was looking for someone, not why or where that person had gone, but it made sense that it came back to the Institute, and, well, he didn’t have anything to lose anyway, really. Fahrenheit would be disappointed if he went down in anything less than a blaze of glory.

Nora looked at him like she wanted him at her side but didn’t make him want to do anything he didn’t want to, and Hancock found himself nodding before he even knew what the nod was getting him into.

“When do we start?”

* * *

Nora wasn’t a huge fan of power armor. It got in the way of mobility, made it harder to brandish a switchblade, and, most of all, was loud. It did, however, let her be very tall, which was a kind of immature pleasure that she was unsure of how to explain to Hancock, who she now dwarfed.

Nora was also very aware that Hancock was going into this with only very minimal background, and his willingness to follow her into the most dangerous region of the Commonwealth with little to no context was an almost foolhardy expression of trust.

“So,” Nora said, grimacing at the distortion of her own voice, “I suppose I owe you a little bit of an explanation.”

Hancock looked up at her (looked _up!_ It shouldn’t have made her that giddy but it did) in surprise. “You don’t owe me a thing, sister. Putting myself in harm’s way for beautiful women is what I do.”

She laughed at that, and Hancock smiled accordingly; Nora marveled at the way with which he put her at ease. Still, Nora sobered up fairly quickly. “The Institute… they have my son, Hancock.” That got the ghoul to start, and Nora realized quickly she’d never actually seen Hancock surprised. She continued before Survivor started throwing a fit about exposing herself like this. “When I woke up the first time, I watched someone – Kellogg – take my son from Nate’s arms. At the Memory Den, I saw him, and he was at least ten years older – _at least._ ”

Hancock was silent, and Nora resisted the urge to ramble onward, Survivor falling into place again. When Hancock finally spoke, he said, “Then I guess we should be taking this trip to the Glowing Sea pretty seriously.”

Nora missed his eyes flicking to her left hand, where the wedding ring would be if she wasn’t covered head to toe in Power Armor, but Hancock felt one more piece of a puzzle he hadn’t realized he was so invested in solving click into place.

When they bunk down for the night, Housewife is back again. Nora had slipped out of the armor as fast as she could manage it, breathing a sigh of relief that was so euphoric that Hancock had to smile with her. Now she was roasting mirelurk meat that Nora had swiped from Sanctuary for the trip. “I may have stolen this from the stores,” Nora said as she worked, and it wasn’t a little apologetic.

“I mean, it’s probably not stealing if you’re the one who’s bringing all the food in,” Hancock said, and Nora shrugged.

“I was pretty broke right after graduating, and when Daddy died, I was _really_ broke. No one wanted to hire a fresh grad, and especially not one like me.”

That was an admission if Hancock had ever heard one. “Sounds like one of those comic book origin stories. _From hardship to hero_ , or something.”

Nora shook her head violently, spinning the meat on the makeshift rotisserie she’d crafted. “Can do without the hero worship, thanks. Just looking for my baby.”

Hancock decided against mentioning that she had admitted just hours ago that her baby wasn’t really a baby anymore. If that was her way of coping with the trauma, he didn’t really think he had any right to take it from her.

“What about you, though?” Nora asked, and he drags his eyes to her, away from the knife he’s been turning over and over in his hands.

“What about me, sister?”

“Oh, come on, Hancock. You’ve been piecing together bits of me since you wound up in Sanctuary, and all I’ve got on you is _of the people, for the people_ and that you like mentats,” Nora laughed at her own admittedly small pool of knowledge. “Do people this century still play 20 Questions?”

“The way you wear that vault suit, doll, I’ll play anything you like.”

She explained the rules, and off they went, and if all Hancock noticed was the firelight flickering off the band of gold around her finger, he was pretty sure he wasn’t at fault.

“Nick called you Johnny when we first met. Is your first name really John? Or is that just part of the Hancock business?”

“I was John before I was Hancock, if that’s what you’re askin’.”

“Okay, okay, now you ask a question.”

“Mind if I knock back some mentats?” John was shaking them out of the tin before his question was even done, and he asked more out of politeness than to hear her answer.

“Is that your question?” Nora asked dryly.

Hancock chuckled. “It was that or asking how you manage to get your ass to fit into that vault suit.”

The questions weren’t anything too personal (How old were you when you had your first kiss? What’s your favorite color? Did the food really taste better pre-war?), but when they were done, Nora felt much more comfortable calling Hancock a friend instead of a very close acquaintance.

* * *

When the sky first turned green, Nora thought it was a radstorm rolling in. Hancock had his suspicions that that wasn’t the case, but he could also see that Nora hadn’t quite flipped the switch to Survivor yet, and Nora felt very much the scared little housewife encased in a T-45 suit. She was good at compartmentalizing, had been since they first met, and Hancock wasn’t quite sure how it worked yet (didn’t seem the kind of thing to ask during 20 Questions), but he’d figure it out or he’d hallucinate an answer eventually.

Eventually, though, Nora wasn’t able to deny it any longer. Survivor slid into place like Housewife had escaped with a too long exhale, and she tensed in a way that made it clear she was ready to draw her rifle at the slightest cause.

“Got a family, John?” Nora’s voice was steely, but Hancock wasn’t sure if it was really her tone or just the distortion from the suit helmet.

He wasn’t sure where that question came from, but answered nonetheless. “In a roundabout kind of way, yes.”

“Then I’m sorry if I get you killed out here.”

“Well, if that’s why you were asking, don’t worry. I’ve got nobody that’d miss me.”

Nora chuckled. “You’re telling me a man as popular as you doesn’t have some lady at home in Goodneighbor who’d miss you?”

“Hmm,” Hancock vocalized, then paused. “Well, suppose Fahrenheit would, but that’s mostly to do with her not wanting to deal with bureaucratic bullshit.”

“Not what I meant, but I suppose that’s fair.” Nora was talking to stave off fear, to ignore that every step they took was a step into a different level of hell.

“Why? Interested in this mug?” Hancock asked, and Nora sobered. Hancock quickly thought he had crossed the line, but Nora spoke quietly.

“Would be just like me. And I would miss you if you left Sanctuary and didn’t come back,” she said, and Hancock wasn’t quite sure what to say to that or what to make of it. Nora stopped abruptly, kneeling down. “Hancock.”

Hancock followed suit, dropping in behind her. Nora was behind cover, but Nora was almost like cover herself, the armor made her so imposing. “What I’m about to say to you is something I never thought I would say,” Nora said, then paused. “There are three radscorpions, and they are fighting a deathclaw.”

Hancock laughed. “Of course they are.”

The deathclaw had killed off two of the radscorpions and the third was on its last leg. Nora looked at Hancock and said, “I’m about to do something very stupid,” and immediately did her Very Stupid Thing.

Nora pulled a Molotov cocktail from her pack and held it out to Hancock to light. When he did, she took a step out and tossed it in the direction of the deathclaw, who seemed to attribute the extra pain to the final radscorpion. The deathclaw raised the scorpions already mangled (still alive) body in one claw, and tore off its stinger with the other, before laying eyes on Nora, who had managed to sink a shot into its heavily armored left leg.

Nora was right, Hancock thought. This was _really_ stupid. She was by far the better sniper, but Nora was out there with a machete and a pistol and here he was with her rifle and a prayer and an attachment to her that he’d managed to cultivate just in time for her to go guns blazing after a _fucking_ deathclaw.

One shot, one hit? Maybe? It was just as likely he’d missed and Hancock really thought Nora was placing a little too much faith in both him and that T-45 suit. There was a dramatic finish, at least, one in which Nora didn’t die and it ended in a (perhaps unnecessarily) theatrical finish. Nora managed to nearly decapitate the monster, and she took a step away not quite in time to avoid the blood spatter.

“Hancock,” Nora said, and it’s so subtle that Hancock nearly missed the hitch in her voice. “Let’s go.”

Hancock emerged from cover and was at her side as quickly as he could be. “You alright, sister?”

“Blood, drugs, needles. Is there anything I’m not uncomfortable with?” Survivor had slipped back to Housewife somewhere in the short time between killing the deathclaw and Hancock finding his way over to her, and she cursed herself briefly.

“My handsome face?”

Nora didn’t answer him, but took a step forward and they were off again, the Woman Out of Time and the mayor of Goodneighbor, because when they were walking Nora didn’t have to think about how much easier it was getting to kill things with every deathblow she struck.

The Glowing Sea was inhumane and desolate, a lot like how Nora was beginning to feel her heart harden. She had never been particularly soft, but she’d never taken joy in a killing, and there was a thrill of bloodlust that had started as soon as she’d thrown the fire bomb that was hard for her to wipe out of her mind.

When Survivor got tougher, Housewife and Lawyer got weaker, like who she was before the war had never existed at all, like she wouldn’t be who Codsworth remembered again.

The ring on her finger burned like a brand, like she was having an affair inside her own head. Would Nate still love her if he met her today? Would she still love Nate if she met him here? And did the distinction really matter when he was dead and she hadn’t been able to save him?

The ring burned even more when she looked to her left and saw Hancock looking her over with concern.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> whoops hello been awhile  
> battlemastershepard.tumblr.com if u wanna tell me to fuk right off, m9
> 
> this chapter felt clunky and that's why i was stuck forever and it's not an excuse really but it also is thanks for reading i l y all


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